Health Watch On For Pineview Students

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Northern Health has scheduled a news conference in less than an hour to discuss a situation at Pineview elementary school that could impact as many as 137 children.

It’s believed the children may have eaten undercooked chicken portions that were provided for lunch yesterday -- undercooked chicken can lead to various stomach illnesses, including salmonella food poisoning.

NH’s Director of Communications, Mark Karjaluoto, says environmental health officers spent last night phoning the parents of children who had the chicken lunch to tell them about the situation.  Karjaluoto says the food establishment that provided the chicken lunch has voluntarily closed while an investigation takes place.

Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. David Bowering, says, "We have informed the PGRH Emergency Department about the situation and have asked them to be on the watch for any gastrointestinal illness that could be related to this."

Northern Health has advised parents to:

-- pay attention to their children’s health over the next two days;

-- provide supportive therapy (bed rest, fluids) in the event their child has the symptoms of gastrointestinal illness;

-- and, seek medical attention or contact the B.C. NurseLine at 1-866-215-4700 if their child’s symptoms have not resolved or become worse over 24-hours.

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